ngl i think the thing that makes me the most upset about the odyssey movie is that the theme of the story doesnt make sense for the odyssey. because the odyssey is about letting go of hubris, its about surrendering yourself to the gods and realizing that you are nothing more when compared to them. thats why the whole thing that starts the odyssey is odysseus almost escaping polyphemus only to at the last minute practically shout his entire ip address and straight up dox himself. he wanted the glory but he didnt need it and that's how polyphemus gets his names and calls it out to posiedon for him to then torment odysseus. and when it comes to circe's island they spend a year there (im pretty sure, but its been a while since ive read the odyssey), they spend a year because odysseus assumes he has all the time in the world, only to then see his dead mother in the underworld and realize that thats not true. only furthering his desire to get to penelope and that makes him staying on calypso's island so tragic.
but the movie doesnt take these themes and thats fine on a surface level, but instead that make it a movie about the tragedy of war and honestly... THATS A GOOD THEME!!! but then why have the cyclops? circe kinda makes sense as in the movie she showed some kind of trauma, but then why have scylla? charibdys? (i spelled that wrong). the underworld makes sense but then why have him stuck on calypso's island? its only to show that this is a movie about the odyssey, but in my opinion the odyssey was the wrong movie to show this about.
instead they should've went with the iliad which is basically about the tragedy of war to a T. hell it ends with a funeral. its about how the war has gone on so long and has taken so many lives and how they're continuing it because if they don't then they've truly lost. i mean why do you think on of the biggest plot points in the epic is achilles giving hector's body back to priam? why do you think its patroclus dying, and like I said before later ending in hector's funeral? that's about the tragedy of war. not the odyssey.
it's a perfectly fine theme and its done in a mediocre way imo but it would've been better in the iliad. not the odyssey
